Sky-Walking
by neriine
Summary: All Hux wanted to do was walk across town. He never expected he would end up doing it through the air. At least the view is nice. Of course, he's talking about seeing the town from above, and definitely not about the mysterious Wizard he's pressed up against. [Howl's Moving Castle AU Snippet] [Originally posted on AO3 6/6/16]


Originally a gift for Kylux Positivity Day! Hope you enjoy!

[EDIT: Oh my god it didn't preserve italics I'm so sorry if you saw the ugly unitalicised version]

* * *

The Arkanis sky was grey, as it usually was. The Arkanis sky was raining, as it usually was. And there, in the far distance, the sleek shape of a wizard's ship passed in and out of the Arkanis clouds, as it usually did.  
The other crew members of _The Finalizer_ (The best engineering work in town! Get 50% off if you upgrade your vehicle now!) all crushed in to the window to get a better look at the ship of the infamous Wizard Kylo – though why, Hux couldn't really tell. As with most things in Arkanis, all his colleagues losing their minds momentarily to crane their necks in order to catch a glimpse of the ominous shadow was, indeed, what they usually did.  
Pressing his fingers to his aching temples, Hux tried to focus back on the minuscule text of the trade agreement on his desk. Unfortunately, it did nothing to block out the round of gossiping that inevitably arose whenever Wizard 'Flash bastard' Kylo made a dramatic appearance.

'I heard he uses his victims' ashes to keep himself young and beautiful!' Rodinion – prone to panic as he was – sounded on the verge of hysteria as he proclaimed the latest rumour making its way around the town.

'W-well, _I_ heard he sacrifices his victims to a powerful spirit that gives him all his magic!' Thanisson piped up, his youthful face bright with the opportunity to contribute to the ongoing debate about what made the Wizard so dangerous.

'You're both being ridiculous,' Mitaka rolled his eyes. ' _Everyone_ knows that Wizard Kylo eats the hearts of pretty girls to keep himself powerful. I heard old Lor San Tekka up the street saying how his daughter's best's friend's niece had her heart eaten by him just last week!'  
The assembled crew devolved into argument, Rodinion and Thanisson weakly trying to protest Mitaka's judgement over a chorus of third- or fourth- hand accounts of all the pretty young girls who had had their hearts eaten by the Wizard. Hux shifted on his stool, making to get up and stop the chatter steadily sending pangs of pain through his tension-weary head, but Unamo had already stalked across to them with her coat slung over her arm.

'While I'm sure the Wizard Kylo is very interesting and very evil, I'd much rather you discussed him and his misdeeds _outside the office_.' Unamo's voice was icy steel, and not for the first time Hux thanked his lucky stars that he had never raised her ire. 'Now, it's five minutes past the time you were all supposed to leave, so please take your pathetic gossip home so those still actually working-' She glanced at Hux, still hunched over the incomprehensible text. '-can do their jobs.'  
With stammered apologies and a rattle as the crew grabbed their umbrellas and hurried out into the downpour, Hux was left in almost complete silence. Unamo sighed, and wrapped her coat around her shoulders.  
'Hux, are you okay to close up?' He nodded at her, desperately trying to keep his eyes focused on the page. He barely registered her farewell.

Fifteen minutes later, Hux realised he was on the same page he had been on before Wizard Kylo's ship had appeared in the sky, and all the words were blurring together. He rubbed his eyes and pushed the hefty booklet to the corner of his desk before standing and smoothing out his jodhpurs. Grabbing his own coat, he hooked the keys to the shop on his pinkie finger and absentmindedly spun them while he collected his belongings.

The journey to Phasma's gym was always a bit of a trial, since the roads were more pothole than surface - walking inevitably got you drenched from puddle backsplash and taking transport got you concussed. Hux set off down the path to Phasma's, keeping as close to the shop side of the pavement as he could without scraping his umbrella along the walls.

'Hhheyy!'

As was his luck, this put him a lot closer to the leering drunkards outside the pub than he would want.

'Heyy, listen! Red! Fffancy a- er – drink?' A dishevelled man lurched towards Hux, almost overbalancing and hauling himself upright by Hux's lapels. Hux leant as far away from the man's rancid breath as he could. In the back of his mind he vaguely wondered what would happen if anyone lit a match around this lush – it almost seemed as if alcohol was leaking from his very pores.

'No thank you. I'm very busy. Get out of my way.' Hux carefully pushed the man off of him, and made to hurriedly walk away. With commendable accuracy the drunkard caught the back of Hux's collar, dragging him backwards.  
Before Hux could punch the man, or knife him, or glass him (the bastards who left their pint glasses on window ledges were the scum of the earth, but in some cases they were useful), a tall, pale looking man firmly put his arm around Hux's shoulders.

'Didn't you hear him? He said he was busy.' This new man's voice had a rich, deep timbre that reminded Hux of a lion's purr – not outright violent, but not without the suggestion that the owner could rip your throat out with his teeth.

'Who the fffuck are you to tell me wha'to do?' Evidently the drunkard was even less intelligent than Hux had thought, if he couldn't realise how powerful this man was.  
With nothing more than a low chuckle (that sent shivers down Hux's spine and set all of his hairs on end), the man made a spinning motion with his finger and the drunkard, like a puppet, was sent marching back into the pub with regular steps he never could have managed on his own. Hux realised with a sinking feeling that the man still protectively wrapped around his shoulders was a Wizard. For one heart-stopping moment he considered the possibility of this man being the Wizard Kylo, but Mitaka's words about _pretty girls_ came back to him and, since he was neither pretty nor a girl, he resolved not to even think about it.  
His thoughts were cut short by the Wizard ushering him along, the arm slung over Hux's shoulders guiding both of them forward. The Wizard leant in and murmured into Hux's ear, so close Hux could feel the other's lips brushing his cheek.

'I'm sorry, but I'm being followed. Act natural and don't panic – just follow my lead.'

Hux felt the flush in his cheeks from the chilly, damp climate (and the proximity to such a dangerously attractive man, but he wasn't going to admit that even to himself) drain away, and knew he had gone the unflattering shade of pasty white he went when he was scared. As the Wizard led him through the streets he could feel their speed gradually picking up, and beneath the pattering of rain on the pavement he could vaguely hear footsteps stamping behind him. He wasn't sure whether it was magic or coincidence, but as he picked up speed he felt certain that the rain too picked up, and by the time he was sprinting to keep up (his umbrella flung into the drain) with the Wizard it was pelting it down in stair-rods. Through the haze of the rain he could see dark shapes moving towards them from the street they were running towards, and he was dragged to a stumbling halt before being yanked down a convenient alley between the two chasing parties. Hux's bad luck must have been contagious, though, as from the gloomy depths of the alley he could see more of the amorphous figures lunging towards them.

Hux felt his body seize up - his lungs tightened, his heart skipped a beat, his digestive system clanged shut in a way he knew he'd pay for later – and his steps faltered. Just as he started to close his eyes in anticipation of impact with their chasers, he felt two large hands clasp around his own and a sudden, intense feeling of _up_.

The rain felt like bullets as the Wizard propelled them into the sky, and then petered out as they passed through icy clouds and into the weak sunlight above. Hux wanted to scream but all he could manage was a woozy gasp.

'Now… straighten your legs and start walking.' The strong hands anchored Hux as he started pedalling his legs through the air, and allowed him to clear his mind enough to glance back at the Wizard. The man's hair was floating around his face in a magical, inhuman way – Hux knew his own hair had come unslicked and he most definitely looked like he had been dragged through a hedge backwards. In fact, Hux was certain he looked awful, with tired, red-rimmed eyes and purple shadows clashing violently with the blotchy puce colour his skin turned when he did any exercise. This Wizard looked entirely in his element in the sky, his pale skin clear and even in the sunlight, his moles contrasting like constellations across his face. Even his clothes seemed to be cut to flatter in the sky – the black robes floated effortlessly around him as if they were suspended in water.

Now Hux had calmed down enough, he found he quite enjoyed walking through the sky. The Wizard's hands were tight around his own and he could feel the reassuring press of his chest against Hux's back. It was exhilarating, to be able to walk on nothing with no fear of falling.

The Wizard guided them back through the clouds, but Hux didn't feel the rain anymore. Glancing up, he saw the rain simply… miss him. It was as if the Wizard had raised an invisible umbrella. Hux shivered. Magic seemed to have so many uses.

As the Wizard brought them closer to the ground, Hux began to recognise the buildings around Phasma's gym.

'My friend's gym is just over there,' He looked up at the Wizard. 'If you could be so kind-'

'I know.' The Wizard's eyes were alight with humour. Hux frowned.

' _How exactly_ do you know that? Did you read my mind? Have you been stalking me? I consented to neither of those, so you'd better explain yourself before I get close enough to the ground to get my datapad out and call the cops.'

The Wizard faltered, taken aback in the face of Hux's sudden fury. He looked a lot less terrifying and predatory when the beginnings of a pout were taking over his face.

'I-I read your mind. I… er… thought you'd be impressed?'  
Hux raised an eyebrow and scoffed.

'So you're okay with being taken into the sky for a walk, but not for me to read your mind?' The Wizard continued. 'That sounds a little…hypocritical.'

'Look, I can understand the floating as a means of escape – and I do appreciate not being left as a snack for whatever the fuck was chasing you earlier – but considering you could have just _asked me_ where to drop me off, I feel the mind reading crosses a line.' Hux tilted his head up triumphantly, sure he had the moral high ground.

'You don't mind it, though, really,' The Wizard smirked 'You _liked_ it.'

'I most certainly did no-'

'-yes you did. And, for the record, the floating wasn't just a means of escape.' The smirk had grown into a full, sharklike grin

'What was it then? A bit of exercise? Your version of the Make-A-Wish-Foundation except instead of cancer kids you take poor hapless engineers on sky walks, you… you…sky-walker!'

The Wizard erupted into riotous laughter, and Hux belatedly realised that the only things keeping him from being jam on the pavement were the hands the Wizard was now flailing around uncontrollably.

'You're more accurate with that _adorable_ insult than you knew.' The Wizard pulled their joined hands up to wipe his eyes. 'No. I thought you were sweet when I saw you, but now that I realise you're hilarious too? Definitely worth impressing with a… sky-walk!' He erupted into sniggers again.

It took a moment for Hux to decipher the Wizard's words through his laughter, and by the time he had made his way from puce to beetroot, his feet were tapping against the balcony of the second floor of the gym. The Wizard elegantly vaulted over the balcony edge and landed next to Hux.

'It was a pleasure escorting you, Mr…?'

'Hux.'

'Mr Hux.' The Wizard pressed a chaste kiss to the back of Hux's hand.

'What's your name, Wizard?' Hux hoped to any deity that would listen that the answer wouldn't be Kylo. If the Wizard was after his heart, Hux had a horrible feeling he wouldn't protest very much.

'My name is K…My name is Ren. It's Ren, yeah.'

'Ren?'

'Ren.' Ren nodded vigorously, his curls still bobbing in a slightly inhuman way with his movement.

'Well, _Ren_. Thank you for escorting me.' Hux turned to head off towards the nearest door to the gym, but was stopped by a tug on his wrist. Turning back, he found himself nose to nose with Ren, his predatorial brown eyes staring into Hux's own blue-green ones. The smirk was back.

'What are yo-mmph!' Hux was cut off by the firm press of Ren's lips against his (parted, thin, chapped) own.

'I'm sure this won't be the last time we meet, Mr Hux.' Ren leapt back onto the railings before taking a step backwards and vanishing from sight. Even as Hux ran forward to stare into the street below he knew the Wizard would be gone.

All Hux hoped now was that no other Wizard – such as the Wizard Kylo – decided to bother him because of this.

* * *

Congratulations, Hux! you've officially tempted fate.


End file.
